


Flight Simulation

by rebel_wren



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Ficlet, Fluff, Gen, Jacen Syndulla mentioned, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-23
Updated: 2019-04-23
Packaged: 2020-01-24 14:49:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18573697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebel_wren/pseuds/rebel_wren
Summary: Hera is eight months pregnant, and is getting frustrated with how it's been getting in the way of things- most specifically, it's been getting in the way of her flying. Zeb and Sabine decide to do what they can to help her feel a little better.





	Flight Simulation

Hera groaned and leaned against the back of the couch. She’d been trying to get her boots off for the past 20 minutes, but the growing baby inside her kept getting in the way, and she just had to give up.

“Zeb!”

“What?” Zeb called back. He sounded like he was in the kitchen.

“Can you come help me?”

There was a light _clank_ as he put down whatever he was holding, and then he showed up a moment later. He furrowed his brow.

“With what?”

She forced a smile at him. “Can you take my boots off?”

Zeb snorted and shook his head, but knelt down to pull them off for her. Hera sighed in relief and flexed her toes.

“Thank you.”

“Mmhmm. Anything else?”

“I’m good for now,” she said. “I just need to be done being pregnant.”

Zeb chuckled and stood up. “Only a month to go, right?”

“Yeah, I know.” Hera put a hand over her belly. “I just feel so… helpless. I take forever to walk across base for meetings, I can’t even take my own boots off, they said they’ll only let me fly in emergencies, even though I’m pretty sure we’ve had four of those and they _still_ didn’t let me fly-”

“You’ve been looking for an emergency,” Zeb pointed out. She waved a dismissive hand at him.

“I’ve never gone this long without flying, Zeb,” Hera said. “I miss it.”

He smiled sympathetically at her, and nodded. “You’ll be able to fly again when the baby is born. And who knows,” he added, as he started to walk back towards the kitchen. “Maybe there’ll be an emergency.”

Hera rested her head back, and she felt Jacen kick a little bit. She smiled and rubbed over the top of her stomach, and could already see herself teaching her son how to fly.

* * *

 

Sabine tugged on Hera’s hand. “Come on, stand up, I’ll help you.”

“I just sat down!”

Sabine snorted. “Yeah, like twenty minutes ago. I want to show you something!”

“If it’s a painting, then it better be dry, I can’t be inhaling any kind of fumes.”

Sabine shook her head and pulled harder, and Hera finally stood up with her. “It’s not paint, Zeb and I got you something.”

“It better not be another surprise baby shower,” Hera said, following Sabine down the hall towards her room.

Sabine laughed and just pressed the button to open the door to Hera’s room. It slid open, and Zeb was standing and grinning proudly next to a console of sorts. Hera frowned and cocked an eyebrow.

“You got me a game?”

Zeb shook his head, still beaming. “No,” he said. “Sabine and I were talking to some of the Gold Squadron pilots, and they had one of those new flight simulators that the mechanics build.”

“The really good ones that they use to train new pilots,” Sabine added.

Hera’s lips slowly curled into a soft smile, and she stepped towards the simulator. Zeb put a hand on her shoulder.

“I remembered what you said about wanting to fly, and we thought this would be the next best thing.”

Hera nodded, speechless, with tears stinging the corners of her eyes. Zeb helped her take a seat in front of the simulator, and once she was situated, she turned it on. It lit up blue in front of her, and Sabine offered her a helmet piece that was hooked up to it.

“They said you should wear this so it feels more like flying. I modified it to fit over your lekku.”

Hera let Sabine put the helmet on her, and Zeb handed her the controls. “Gold Squadron just had one with Y-Wing programming, so that’s what you’ll fly.”

“Thank you,” Hera said softly. She saw Zeb and Sabine both flash each other a knowing smile when the program started. The visor of the helmet Sabine put on her flipped down, and she was surrounded by a field of space, in the cockpit of a Y-Wing. She smiled wide- she missed the view.

She held the controllers in her hand, and gripped them tightly, and started to move the ship through space. It didn’t feel the same as actually flying, but it was exhilarating after being grounded for so long. She spun it, flipped the ship, and flew through the starfield.

* * *

 

Hera couldn’t tell how long she was in the simulator, but when she finally closed the simulator and let the visor of her helmet slide back up. She blinked as she re-adjusted her sight. The lights in her room had been a little dimmed, and Zeb was asleep on her bed, snoring. She smiled and set the controls down, and pulled the helmet off of her head.

She climbed in bed, up against Zeb, who blinked a couple times.

“Wha-?”

“Relax, big guy, it’s me. Guess I was in there for a while, huh?”

Zeb nodded and curled a protective arm around her, over the baby. He closed his eyes again, resting his head back. “Sure were. Sabine went to hang out with Ketsu.”

Hera smiled and rested against Zeb, letting her eyes fall shut. “Good to know,” Hera said. “Thank you, Zeb. That… meant a lot.”

Zeb chuckled sleepily. “Glad we could cheer you up.”

Hera started to drift off, still feeling a glow from her family’s love.


End file.
